When it comes to richness in features, Android remains at the top of the hill. One of the great features that has been part of the platform natively since 2009 is ‘widgets’ and it remains an integral part of the OS even now. Android widgets have evolved over the years both in terms of functionality and looks. For people who have been in living in a cave, widgets are available for Android’s homescreen and they display live-updates like weather info, news, email and more. It also lets you use certain features of an app like shuffle music directly, post on social networks and more.
Android widgets are an important part of the user experience and like any other feature, Google Play Store packs a ton of great widgets. Some widgets bring a great deal of functionality, some make life easier, while some are just cool enough to deserve a mention. The number of apps are always overwhelming on Play Store but not all of them bring the best user experience or features. As we’ve always done, we’ve saved you from all the hassle and tried most widget apps ourselves and here are the best Android widgets we found:
Best Android Widgets in Various categories
We are listing down the apps in various categories, so that you can find the perfect Android widget you’ve been looking for all this while. So, here it goes:
Best Clock Widgets
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Minimalist Clock Widget
Minimalist Clock Widget features more than 20 clock designs and all of them look pretty polished. The number of great clock choices appealed to us greatly and we are sure you will find them cool too. Along with cool clock designs, you can customize almost everything. You can change the color of every particular thing on a widget and some color options depend on the clock you are using. Along with the clock, you can choose to see weather, battery level and timezone on the widget.
Minimalist Clock Widget is fairly new but we are confident about it and we are pretty sure you should check it out. You can thank us later!
Compatibility: Android 3.0 and up.
Install: (Free)
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Onca Clock Widget
Once Clock widget is the perfect clock widget if you love an interface with simplistic and minimalistic interface. It also lets you customize the widget according to your needs.
The free version of Onca Clock Widget lets you select the font size, adjust transparency, show/hide seconds or date or background ring. It also allows you to open certain apps when tapped on the clock or date widget. The Pro version can be bought with an in-app purchase and it lets you customize the looks of hours & minutes, change colors, add minute marks and more. The Pro features can be previewed in the app before purchasing, so you can give it a try and see if you like it enough.
Compatibility: Android 4.1 and up.
Install: (Free with in-app purchase for Pro)
Best Weather Widgets
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1Weather
1Weather is a good looking weather widget, which along with the weather shows you clock and a Google search bar. You can either let the app use your location or add custom locations. Customization options include background selection (live weather, dar, light, transparent), icon set, accent, clock face and more. You can also set an app that will launch when the widget is tapped.
Moreover, 1Weather app brings you weather details like precipitation, wind and more with some great transitions & charts, that make it fun to use.
Compatibility: Varies with device.
Install: (Free)
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Transparent Clock & Weather
What we most liked about Transparent Clock & Weather is the fact that it brings a ton of widget designs and that too in a number of sizes, so you will never be out of options. You can fully customize the widget, as there are options to change widget skin, weather icons style, time font and lot more. You can also set-up time & date, weather & location and app notifications.
Along with tons of cool widgets, Transparent Clock & weather also brings a great weather app with features like moon forecast, precipitation, humidity, wind details and more. The app is free but it’s limited when it comes to options and it also includes ads. The premium version remove the ads and includes all the settings.
Compatibility: Android 2.3 and up.
Install: (Free, Premium $2.83)
Best Dialer/App Launcher Widgets
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Circle Launcher
Circle Launcher is a widget and not a launcher, as its name suggests but the functionality it brings in the widget almost eliminates the need of a launcher. The widget lets you launch an app, call a contact or go to your bookmark with super ease. Other than that, there are a plethora of options to customize widget label, widget icon, animations, background dimming, icon size, background color, offset, text size & color and more. The app also lets you save your configurations, which you can restore on a different device, so that you don’t have to set up everything all over again. The app is available in a free “light” version, free “Swipe” version, free “ad included” version and a paid version.
The “Swipe” version lets you swipe at selected areas on the homescreen to open up Circle launcher. You can choose the areas, width and sensitivity of swipes. The “ad” version includes ads in the Circle Launcher you have installed. The paid version of the app unlocks different widget styles and more customization options than what you’ve seen in the light version. While the names are complicating, the widget’s functionality and ease of use make it worth it.
Compatibility: Android 2.1 and up.
Install: (Free “Light” version, Free “Swipe” version, Full version $1.00)
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AppDialer Pro Widget
Finding an app on your Android device can be cumbersome, especially if you don’t have that app on the homescreen. Well, not anymore, thanks to AppDialer Pro widget. It’s a cool widget that lets you search for apps through a smart alphanumeric or predictive Qwerty keyboard. The widget searches for apps, people and various settings as well. It also brings a Quick launch panel in the notification bar and other customization options.
AppDialer comes in a free version but it’s very limited and it will notify you to buy the Pro version so many times that you might end up deleting the app. So, get the free version to just get a feel of how the app works and then get the Pro version before you change your mind.
Compatibility: Android 4.0.3 and up.
Best Calendar Widgets
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Event Flow Calendar Widget
Event Flow Calendar Widget app includes a calendar widget as well as an Agenda widget. Both the widgets have their own set of settings that include customization options like fonts, text density, colors and themes. You can also choose what information is seen on the widget and which accounts’ calendar’s info is shown. The agenda widget even shows your weather forecasts, which is certainly a good addition. To sum it up, the widget looks great and the themes feature makes sure you can get a new look whenever you want.
The app is available in a free version, which lacks some customization options for the Agenda widget. The Premium version is available as an in-app purchase and it unlocks all the locked features.
Compatibility: Android 4.0 and up.
Install: (Free with in-app purchase for Premium version)
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Calendar Widget: Month
Calendar Widget: Month is a pretty cool calendar widget, which comes with support for more than 70 themes. Just hit the magic button in the app and you will get a slide showing all the themes that are available. Along with the cool themes, there are options for calendars you want to display, Lunar calendar, change colors of events and more.
The Calendar Widget: Month app is available for free on the Play Store but there are various in-app purchases to remove ads and get premium themes. If you have trouble finding the app after installation, remember it goes by the name “Month”.
Compatibility: Android 4.0 and up.
Install: (Free with in-app purchases)
Best Battery Widgets
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Battery Widget Reborn
Battery Widget Reborn is a highly rated and most downloaded battery widget app. It brings a battery widget and an additional battery chart widget, which shows you a graphical chart of your battery. Along with the widgets, the app also brings a battery status panel on the notification bar. Other features of the app includes stats, power setting toggles, power saving settings and more.
The battery widget & a chart widget comes with configuration settings like ability to choose what to see on the widget, charging indicator, width, drop shadow, colors, on-click action and more. The app is available in a free version but it includes ads. The paid version doesn’t bring any extra features but it remove the ads.
Compatibility: Varies with device
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Battery HD
Battery HD has been a popular battery widget app for quite a few years now and it still remains one of the best widgets. It brings different widgets (compact and horizontal) that show battery, charge levels, time estimations for specific usage, temperature, voltage and time since last charge. It also allows you to change colors, configure notifications & charge level alerts and more. The app also shows you battery details like time required to charge through AC & USB, battery health and more.
The app is available for free on the Play Store and it has ads but you can get the Premium version, if you are really allergic to ads.
Compatibility: Varies with device.
Best Note Taking Widgets
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Google Keep
Google Keep might not be the favourite note-taking app for everyone but its widget functionality is certainly great. It lets you add widgets for your notes and reminders. You can also quickly add a text note, list, audio note, drawing or photo note from the plus button in the widget. Speed is key while taking a note and the widget makes sure you don’t compromise there.
Other than that, we already know about other Keep features like note labelling & sharing, Drive integration etc.. While it’s not the most feature rich note taking app, it has the best simplistic widget that works the way it’s supposed to.
Compatibility: Android 4.0 and up.
Install: (Free)
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Sticky Note+
If you like having sticky notes on your Android homescreen, Sticky Note+ should be a good bet. The cool sticky note app is easy to use and there’s not much fuss about it. You can share your notes, set reminders, create checklists, change their color, text size and font size. It also includes a number of themes, if you are one of the people who get bored pretty easily.
There’s also ability to backup your notes to your phone’s sd card or sync your notes to Google Drive. The cool widget app is available for free (ads included) on the Google Play Store.
Compatibility: Android 2.3 and up.
Install: (Free)
Best News Widget
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Press (RSS Reader)
There are some amazing news apps on the Play Store but the widgets aren’t at par with our expectations. Well, thankfully we found one! Press not only brings a feature rich and beautiful looking app, it also includes a very functional widget. The widget is scrollable and you can scroll around to read the articles right from your homescreen. You can also customize the widget’s size, opacity and background.
Press (RSS Reader) is also a great news accumulator and it supports Feedly, Wrangler, Fever and Feedbin. There are various other features in the app like sync, immersive mode, offline support, readability integration and more. Press is available on the Play Store for $2.99 and sadly, there’s no free version.
Compatibility: Android 4.0 and up.
Install: (Paid $2.99)
Best All in One Widgets
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HD Widgets
HD Widgets has been a very popular widget app for quite some time now and the company behind it makes sure that it is up-to-date to meet Android’s latest design standards. It has been placed under the All in One category for the fact that it brings a widget for almost all your needs. The app includes widgets for clock, calendar, weather forecast & location, toggles and more.
Along with the cool widgets, the app includes plenty of add ons and themes. Widgets are available in a ton of sizes and they bring the information from reliable sources. The app is only available in a paid version, which might put off people who wish to give it a try first. The app includes a free Glass Gems theme pack, which packs more than 100 widgets and you can get more such themes from the Play Store.
Compatibility: Android 4.0.3 and up.
Install: (Paid $0.99)
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Beautiful Widgets
Beautiful Widgets is another popular widgets app that has been around ever since the early days of Android. Like HD Widgets, Beautiful Widgets has also gone through updates to make sure it remains viable. The app includes widgets for smartphones & tablets and you can customize them the way you want. There are cool widgets for clock, clock & weather, toggles, battery and calendar. Moreover, there are several options to choose from, for each of the widget.
The app is available in a freemium version but we’d recommend the paid version because free version is severely limited, when it comes to sources and widgets. The developers also let you get a refund in 24 hours if you don’t like the app.
Compatibility: Varies with device.
Install: (Free, Paid Pro $2.12)
Best Custom Widget maker Apps
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Zooper Widget
Zooper Widget is one cool app that lets you create custom widgets.There are several size options for widgets and you can add custom widget templates from the app. You can also create your own templates and add custom fonts, icon sets. There are some unique features like WYSIWYG editor with support for layers, very much like in Photoshop and Gimp.
Talking about the widgets, there are widgets for clock & time, battery, WiFi & network details(data usage), alerts, sunrise & sunset details and many more. The free version (ads included) of the app is pretty limited when it comes to widget configurations & saving them and it also lacks support for apk themes & Buzz launcher.
Compatibility: Android 3.2 and up.
Install: (Free, Paid Pro $2.99)
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Minimalistic Text: Widgets
If you like minimalistic widgets, then you are going to love Minimalistic Text. It offers simplistic flat widgets for time, date, weather & battery and you can customize every bit of it. There are options to change the widget orientation, background, layout text style, widget content and tap & double tap behavior. It also supports custom widgets, tasker integration and launchers like Buzz.
The features might be a little convoluted for some but if you like tinkering with widgets, you should give it a try. Furthermore, the app is available for free although it does include ads and in-app items.
Compatibility: Varies with device.
Install: (Free with in-app purchases)
SEE ALSO: 20 Free Icon Packs to Customize Your Android
These are the best Android widgets we found out for you. Give them a try and do let us know your experience. Your feedback matter to us.
Abubakar Mohammed
